Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1879 — Nordenskjold’s Discoveries. [ARTICLE]

Nordenskjold’s Discoveries.

The discoveries of Prof. Nordenskjold in the Arctic regions sre full of interest from a-geographical and commercial point of view. The explorer, in a recent letter, states that the coast of Siberia, west of the Lena river, is a vast, treeless plain. There are no islands to prevent the wind from driving the ice-flock down upon the shore, and the points where rivers empty into the Polar ocean, and with their warmer currents maintain open spaces, are separated usually by enormous distances. For several hundred miles in the vicinity of Lena, however, there are several great rivers, and a chain of islands acts as a barrier to the ice. Toward Behring strait the frozen floes crowd closer to the shore, and are liable in the autumn and winter to bar the way to shipping. The most important of Prof. Nordenskjold’s discoveries, from a scientific standpoint, is that of a group of islands off the Siberian coast. These islands, the New Siberian, open the book of history of the world at a new place. The ground there is strewn with wonderful fossils. Whole : hills are covered with the bones of the i mammoth, rhinoceros, horses, uri, ; bison, oxen, sheep, etc. The sea i washes up ivory upon the shore. In this group is possibly to be found the solution of the Indian elephant, and important facts with regard to the vertebrate which existed at the time of man’s first appearance on earth. How came horses and sheep in a region now locked in the fetters of an eternal winter, uninhabited by man, not now supporting animal life in any form, and almost impossible of access? Prof. Nordenskjold was unable to solve the question himself, and he suggests that it is of the utmost importance to science to send a light-draught steel steamer to those islands for a thorough exploratiqn. Boston Traveller.